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Tag: Citigroup

Citigroup Inc. added its name to its closely watched Mexico unit and announced plans to upgrade its retail business in the country with an investment of more than $1 billion by 2020.

The bank said Tuesday the unit, previously called Banco Nacional de México or Banamex, would now be known as Citibanamex. The change ties the Mexican unit, which ran into problems while operating relatively independently a few years ago, more closely to its U.S. parent.

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As far as Citigroup Inc. is concerned, Mexico has little choice but to carry out an unprecedented interest-rate increase to arrest a plunge in the peso triggered by Donald Trump’s recent surge in U.S. presidential polls.

Mexico’s exchange rate has tumbled 6.7 percent in the past month, the biggest slide among the world’s major currencies. Citigroup economist Sergio Luna now predicts Banco de Mexico will lift its key lending rate by 0.75 percentage point on Sept. 29, the most since the bank adopted a new benchmark in 2008.

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Citigroup Inc. (C)’s Mexico subsidiary was fined 30 million pesos ($2.2 million) by the nation’s bank regulators, which faulted the firm for inadequate controls and making loans that violated lending rules. The regulator known as the CNBV announced the penalty in an e-mailed statement today. Banamex said in a separate statement that it paid the sanction and is working on corrective measures. Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank, said in February that it had discovered the Banamex unit had made bogus loans to Oceanografia, forcing the New York-based company to cut previously reported earnings for 2013 by $235 million. Banamex had advanced funds to Oceanografia secured by promises that state-run Petroleos Mexicanos would repay the bank for work the oil-services firm performed.

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Citigroup Inc said on Tuesday it had uncovered a $15 million fraud at its troubled Mexican unit Banamex related to a security services company the bank operated. The company was originally set up only to protect Banamex board members and their families from kidnappers and other attackers, a person familiar with the investigation said. Citi said the company was also found to have been offering its services to third parties. The fraud was related to expenses claims submitted by the company to the bank, the person added.

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Manuel Medina-Mora, head of Citigroup Inc’s (C.N) consumer banking and chairman of the company’s troubled Mexico unit, is preparing to leave in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people with knowledge of the situation. Details of Medina-Mora’s departure were not finalized and could change, but he is expected to leave or announce his departure by early next year, the Journal reported.

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The Mexican mediator in oil-services company Oceanografia SA’s bankruptcy has rejected at least 2 billion pesos ($150 million) of claims sought by Citigroup Inc. (C), said a person with knowledge of the matter. Citigroup had sought about 7.7 billion pesos of claims in the case, said the person, who asked not to be named because the findings aren’t public. The government-appointed mediator, Jose Antonio de Anda Turati, excluded some of the New York-based bank’s claims because it didn’t provide sufficient documentation to support them, the person said.

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Citigroup Inc. (C), which is probing reports its Mexican unit was involved in $430 million of fraudulent loans, was ordered by a judge to turn over internal records about the deals to an Oklahoma pension fund suing the bank. New York-based Citigroup must provide files related to fraud allegations at Banco Nacional de Mexico SA, known as Banamex, including board materials about loans to oil-services firm Oceanografia SA, to the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, Delaware Chancery Court Magistrate Abigail LeGrow ruled yesterday.